Judge opens door for Michigan juvenile lifers

DETROIT (AP) -- All Michigan inmates serving no-parole sentences for murder committed as juveniles are entitled to a fair and meaningful possibility of release, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, declaring that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision applies retroactively.

The decision by U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara in Ann Arbor trumps a ruling last fall by the state appeals court, which said retroactivity would not apply for most people already behind bars.

At issue in Michigan is how to apply a 2012 Supreme Court decision that struck down mandatory no-parole sentences for those who were not adults when they were convicted of crimes, mostly murder. The state has more than 350 prisoners in that category.

Compliance with the Supreme Court decision "requires providing a fair and meaningful possibility of parole to each and every Michigan prisoner who was sentenced to life for a crime committed as a juvenile," O'Meara said.

He told the state attorney general and lawyers for inmates to propose a way to hold parole hearings. Those next steps will be litigated for months.

"If there was ever a legal rule that should -- as a matter of law and morality -- be given retroactive effect, it is the rule announced in Miller," the judge said, referring to the Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama.

"To hold otherwise would allow the state to impose unconstitutional punishment on some persons but not others, an intolerable miscarriage of justice," he said.

A message seeking comment was left with the attorney general's office.